The History of Man

Set in a southern African country that is never named, this powerful tale of human fallibility--told with empathy, generosity, and a light touch--is an excursion into the interiority of the colonizer.

Emil Coetzee, a civil servant in his fifties, is washing blood off his hands when the ceasefire is announced. Like everyone else, he feels unmoored by the end of the conflict. War had given him his sense of purpose, his identity. But why has Emil's life turned out so different from his parents', who spent cheery Friday evenings flapping and flailing the Charleston or dancing the foxtrot? What happened to the Emil who used to wade through the singing elephant grass of the savannah, losing himself in it?

Continuing the interconnected stories she began in her award-winning novel The Theory of Flight, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu explores decades of history through the eyes of one man on his journey from boyhood to manhood, and the changes that befall him through love, loss, and war. With sympathy, complexity, and penetrating insight, The History of Man explores what makes a man, a father, and a nation.

Author: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
Publisher: Catalyst Press
Published: 01/25/2022
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781946395566
ISBN10: 1946395560
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Historical | General
- Fiction | Literary
- Fiction | Sagas